AAP plays minority card: Will it pay off?

Is it playing minority politics in the garb of wooing Muslim voters or is it genuinely aiming to empower the biggest minority in India?

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has declared the highest number of Muslim candidates contesting in the first five phases of Lok Sabha elections 2014. The first five phases cover 232 of the total 543 constituencies up for grabs.

The fifth phase polling is on Thursday (April 17, 2014) while the nine phase poll kicked off on April 7 earlier this month.
According to a Zee Research Group (ZRG) analysis the number of Muslim candidates announced by AAP in the first five phases of LS elections 2014 is comparatively higher than other two mainline parties in the league namely Indian National Congress (INC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While eleven out of 232 candidates announced by INC are Muslims, BJP has fielded only one Muslim candidate out of its 204 announced candidates.

However, 20 out of 206 candidates announced by AAP for first five phases of Lok Sabha elections 2014 are Muslims.

Similarly, AAP’s share in fielding the young blood too is higher than INC and BJP. Commonly known as the party for the common man and run by the enthusiasm of volunteers, AAP has announced 121 young candidates in the first five phases of LS elections as against 75 young candidates fielded by BJP and 68 by INC.
While the average age of candidates announced by AAP is 47 years, average age of candidates in INC and BJP is 55 years and 53 years respectively (for the first five poll phases).

Candidates under the age of 50 years have been categorized as young for the quick survey.

The number of young Muslim candidates in AAP is also higher (13) compared to INC (6) and BJP. BJP has so far not fielded any young Muslim candidate.

Out of the young Muslim lot AAP has four young Muslim women candidates, INC has one and BJP has none.

Likewise, the total number of women candidates announced by AAP (for the first five phases) are 36 as against 23 from INC and 10 from BJP.